“Presencing, the blending of sensing and presence, means to connect with the Source of the highest future possibility and to bring it into the now.”
– Otto Scharmer
I have been spending the last week in Florida for a bit of work and play, and I have found this to be a great time to take a pause and reflect a bit. Maybe it's the disconnect from home. Or the fact that I always love a good bench to reflect upon and seemed to come across a great spot in my walk with my brother's dog, Dasher. For some reason, I have always found benches as great areas to reflect, visualize, and allow creative thoughts to flow through me. Maybe it's the good view that provides the space to visualize?
And not just general reflection, but to reflect on what the emerging future is calling for.
Otto Scharmer calls this "Presencing." Which is to practice both presence & sensing.
It means to connect with the source of your highest future possibility and to bring it into the now. This is all about opening up to the emerging future.
Each human being, business, and community is not one but two.
One is the current self. That is the result of our journey of the past. And the other one is the emerging future self. Your highest future possibility that you could step into. That you could actualize and journey into. And helping these two selves begin to listen to each other.
I wonder how often our teams, organizations, and larger social systems are reflecting and staying connected to this highest future possibility. Is this a 1/1 thing and then we move on for the entire year? When a new hire comes on board, are we taking time to connect them to this future possibility? Are we revisiting this space multiple times throughout the year?
Reflect on this question for yourself as an individual, when was the last time you have taken time to connect with and listen to what the future is calling for?
A few ways to connect with this future self is through deep silence and meditation. Be present in a way that can welcome all things - especially the unknown, the unexpected. Settle into open awareness. Invite a void into which something unexpected, unknown, emerging can land. Stay with open awareness in this space.
Another way to step into the future field is through journaling. This is designed to make the self and future self listen to each other.
We have a few ways to facilitate this within teams, organizations, and larger social systems, but as an individual, those are two powerful ways you can do this alone.
But dont stop there!
Oftentimes, the first thing that happens after we take time to reflect and have a presencing experience is... nothing. No-thing. It’s just a connection.
But, when we succeed in keeping alive that connection to our deeper source of knowing, we begin to better tune into emerging future possibilities. Acting now, from a different place or sphere, we are able to begin to operate from a different source. We envision, prototype, and embody the new.
"Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you—catching— crystallizing your simpler clearer vision of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead—that you must always keep working to grasp..."
- Georgia O’Keeffe
We hope you continue to connect with this highest future possibility. Our workplaces and world need you too.
Every time, every single time, you do anything like any of those, you are yourself directly, immediately, and irrevocably building objects that are instantly being stored in this larger cultural storage bin, adding a few inches to the size of that tsunami racing in our direction now.
And that is why, and I mean it, don’t stop, don’t give up on building this highest future for yourself, of your business, and of our community.
References - CC License by the Presencing Institute - Otto Scharmer